The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, Capturing RedJohn
by Crossliner
Summary: Mary wants to have a quiet family vacation in California, but Sherlock's active mind doesn't grinds on itself and he is restless until he comes in contact with a news article that plunges him deep into the Red John investigation.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

I thought that after my last memoir on the singular acts of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I would forget about writing. I was clearing my attic last week on Mary's request and a tin box followed, in it contained written documents on one of the most singular acts of my friend Sherlock Holmes in aiding the capture of the serial killer RedJohn in the United States of America.

It was in the month of December in the year 2014, Mary's hardworking nature had earned her an expense paid holiday for a family of four in California, USA, Sherlock was reluctant to follow together for this Christmas reward, but my increased influence over him aided in my persuading him to join us on the trip, and it wasn't long before we were in Sacramento enjoying the holidays. Sherlock as was his nature had a habit of checking the agony columns daily for singular unsolved crimes, and he carried this ungodly habit with him on our holiday, Mary had complained to him many a times about it ruining the purpose of holiday and only twice had I successfully compelled him to drop his laptop and join us in family fun. He kept on this habit for about a week, while complaining about the dullness of the new world, finally he finally found what he was looking for, it read 'SERIAL KILLER REDJOHN STRIKES AGAIN', he called my attention to it and read out the details which went like this.

 _" The CBI serious crimes divisions headed by Special Agent Teresa Lisbon was called upon a gruesome crime scene today at Palm beach, where RedJohn, the famous serial killer appeared to have stroke again, killing two adults, Dr. Gregory Tannon and Allison Randolph..."_

Sherlock seemed to be absorbed, then later he turned to me, "I will spend the rest of today filling myself on information on the RedJohn, I'll go and visit the scene tomorrow, and I hope you'll be kind enough to follow me", "I will" I answered dryly, "I thought I knew my Watson", he said smiling, and he got up and went into his room, it was until evening, as Mary was beginning to complain about his obsession, that he stepped out of his room, he sat deep in thought, smoking a haze in the sitting room, "John Watson" he said at last, "I trust you will be glad to meet someone who thinks your name worthy to add to his", "you seem to have a theory about the case" I asked, "O no Watson, no data, it is dangerous to form conclusions with little to no data, but from what I have read he is dangerous, I hope you came with your trusty revolver?" He finally asked, "Sherlock its a Christmas holiday for God sakes, I only took a revolver because I thought you might ask" I said, He grunted, dinner was silent, and he went to bed quickly, dropping a flimsy "We will be up and out early tomorrow". when he had gone, Mary turned on me, "You have to help Sherlock loosen up, its Christmas for god sakes!", "I can't change who he is, besides, this is good, now we can all enjoy Christmas in our own way", She was about to raise an argument, but I waved her off and went to bed. I awoke to Sherlock standing over my bed, fully dressed, "are you awake yet Watson?" He asked, "I am now". It was a short drive to the crime scene, it was littered with police and CBI agents, Sherlock sent in his card and we were assaulted by Agent Teresa Lisbon the Leader of the serious crimes division, "I am sorry Mr. Holmes, but the CBI director did not say anything about we having to work with a consulting detective", "You aren't going to have to" Sherlock said, "It's art for art's sake", "art for arts sake huh?" She asked with a raised brow, "well you don't have access to our crime scene, go home", "Miss Lisbon I trust you'll find me easier to work with", "Sure" Lisbon said sarcastically, "You don't seem to have enjoyed your flight, but a quick glance couldn't hurt you" Sherlock said smiling, she just shrugged and signalled to the inspector, and we were in. Sherlock meticulously studied the house, from where Dr. Tannon's body once lay to the room where Allison once lay, "I commend the position of this smiley face to you attention" He said turning to Agent Lisbon who had shadowed us throughout the campaign, "I already did" Lisbon answered, "RedJohn draws it as a sign whenever he kills a person", Sherlock just grunted, "Well there is nothing more we can learn from here Watson, lets go", he turned to Lisbon, "Can I talk to her husband?", "Ok, knock yourself out". Mr. Randolph wasn't pleased to be subject to further interrogation, but once Sherlock assured him it would be brief, he began to cooperate, his brother just sat there brooding over him. "What was your relationship with Dr. Tannon?" "He was my wife's friend, and a employee of my wife's therapist" he answered, "What was your wife on therapy for?", "She had issues with drugs I think." "Mr. Randolph did it ever strike you at any time that Dr. Tannon and your wife may have been lovers?", "No, Tannon is gay". Sherlock smiled as if he had hit something in a gold field, "Watson I commend this again to your attention" and turning to his Randolph's brother "Did you also know that he was gay?", "Mr. Holmes, it was quite obvious to anyone who met him", "Mr. Randolph, we are done here", Sherlock said getting up, "lets go Watson". In the cab he sat quietly deep in thought, then suddenly he turned to me, "What do you make of this case Watson?", "I can neither make head or tail of it" I answered, "Well Watson, this case begins to have a definite form in my mind", "So you have made up your mind on it then?", "Well I do know the Tannon wasn't killed over jealousy, so the brothers are innocent, Watson, but I shall have the killer in my clutches soon", he paused, "Though the brothers will have a bigger issue among themselves soon.", "And what will that be Sherlock?" I asked, "Well, the younger brother was having an affair with his brothers wife". Having known Holmes method over the years, I didn't really bother to ask, he immediately answered my inner question, "Did you not notice that he brooded over her death severely, clearly he was intimate with her." I nodded in agreement. We drove to Dr. Wagner's office and spoke with him, Sherlock walking up and down as he spoke, and then abruptly he ended the interview and we were back at our apartment, Mary was seriously annoyed over our ruining her holiday spirits, but it didn't take me long to calm her down, Sherlock himself was a bit too jumpy for the weather, and this attracted our attention to him, he had been reading something on the internet and now he seemed to want to make up his mind on something, and it got him excited. "What's going on Sherlock?" Mary asked at last, "I am about to send a very valuable asset to children in Africa to prison, I'm seriously locked in a battle on whether to do that or not", "Who is that Sherlock?" I asked, "The good doctor" He answered, "And yet he donates millions of dollars to Children in Africa, will it be morally right to send him to prison, and let thousands of kids die?", "Well Sherlock, the law must win" I said, "Alas John you're right, the law must prevail, I have to go and clear my mind on this matter.", It was mid-night when I was aware of Sherlock enter the apartment and into his room. The next morning just after breakfast we had an early morning visitor, Dr. Wagner, Sherlock immediately greeted him with such grace as he is well known to employ, "You're a smart man Dr" He said once they were both seated, I and Mary watching in great surprise , "But I find that it is stupid that you never made an effort to hide the body or clear up the evidence.", Wagner looked annoyed, "I don't understand your game Mr. Holmes, you aren't even the police", "But I know what they don't know, and have the power to let you go on account of those thousands of children in Africa, but if you attempt to lie to me again, you will be in the hands of the CBI before today is over.", Wagner seemed to consider it for a moment, "Well Mr. Holmes, if that is your position on the matter, it will serve me well if I should make a clean breast of the situation." "As you well know, I run a hospital as well as a charity, and this man Tannon was going to ruin me over theft, over petty embezzlement, so I killed him", "And Allison you used as distraction" Sherlock exclaimed, "You're good sir" Dr. Wagner said getting up. "I am" Sherlock said getting up too and removing a portable recorder from his pocket, "This belongs to the police confession records", Wagner was really shocked, "I knew something like this would happen" he drew out a pistol from his pocket, "Hand the recorder over to me", Sherlock just walked past him to the door and handed it over to Agent Risgby who stepped in and handled the rest of the arrest, I was beginning to get worried about it, and so was Mary. Agent Lisbon stepped in, and greeted us, "I have been reading about you Mr. Holmes, and you lived up to your reputation", "I do try" Sherlock replied, "What led you to him?" She asked taking a sit, as Sherlock did, "Everything, every train of reason that I followed, I commended to your attention. After hearing the news of the crime, Watson will remember how I fed myself on information about RedJohn, as part of this information, I learned that RedJohn draws his smiley face on the wall facing the door, so as soon as you opened it, you saw the face. And this I commended to your attention, the killer clearly wasn't RedJohn, as the art appeared on the wrong wall. Therefore I eliminated him as a suspect".

" Further examination of the crime scene also showed the same deviation from RedJohn." "I went with the theory then that Tannon was the intended target rather than Allison, based on the theory that a jealous husband might kill him if he suspected he was having an affair with his wife, and therefore spoke with the brothers, I later found out that Tannon was gay and it was well known by all who knew him according to the Randolph's, therefore that motive flew out the window", "I then went to his work place to speak with his boss, and among his collections were books on crime psyches, containing chapters on RedJohn, he became my prime suspect, and it went well with the fact that the killer had wrongly imitated RedJohn, and based on my policy on eliminating the impossible, I was able to come to my conclusion, and that is how I got my man". As he said this he stood up, "Wow" Lisbon exclaimed, "You would be a fine addition to any serious crimes unit", "Its all about deductive imagination" Sherlock said, "And now you must excuse us, I have done enough to ruin Mary's Christmas", He all but threw Lisbon out of the house, turning to us he said, "All professional law enforcers seem to have the same problem with imagination, I bet Lisbon would fit perfectly with Lestrade. But enough about that" He produced the package and handed to Mary, "Merry Christmas Mary".


	2. Chapter 2

It was almost two months after our first encounter with the RedJohn copy cat, that had gotten Sherlock interested in RedJohn. Sherlock's belief in the existence of the Serial Killer as well as interest had waned, as there were no reports of killings by him that proved genuine once he looked into them, in the past month he had encountered four copycats in three cases, the case of the Blind maiden, the case of the Redhead kidnapper, and the Nepal Kidnapping case. When I look into my notes on the RedJohn chase, it will be unjust for me not to mention the one case that brought Sherlock closer to the catching of RedJohn as any other did, the Adventure of the Visualize ploy, a murder case that also saw Sherlock get involved in power play even though he did not employ the full extent of his powers.

It was a cold morning and Sherlock sat at the fire of our apartment in California, I had let Mary return, but had stayed back to aide Sherlock in what he called 'His greatest purpose after the death of late Prof. Moriaty', Sherlock had began to mention and hint at being homesick, spending time brooding and with his violin, I had busied myself with nature walks and taking in our environment, and only once or twice do I remember being able to persuade him to join me on such one. I was brooding over tea, when there was a knock on our door, "Do answer that my dear fellow" Sherlock said promptly without turning towards me. I was somewhat annoyed but I responded nonetheless, Special Agent Teresa Lisbon stood at the door, "Can I have a word with Mr. Holmes?" She asked promptly , "Nice to see you too Agent Lisbon" I answered, "He's right here in the sitting room." Sherlock had already walked to the door, and he greeted her with that remarkable courtesy that was trademark of him. "Do come in Agent Lisbon" he said and he waved her at a chair while we sat side be side on the long chair. "Sir, I wish you would assist us at the CBI in catching a murderer and his or her accomplice" she began once we were all seated, "Why have you come to me in such a hurry?" Sherlock asked, Agent Lisbon gave a violent start, "I have heard of your abilities sir, but I never thought I'll be subject to them". "Well sir, the scene of the crime has been tampered with by this 'accomplice' and we cannot proceed without a clearing up that little matter", "I'll help you" answered Holmes, "but first give me a few details of the case as you have it".

"I received a call this morning about a murder at around 5.30 am. Upon arriving on the scene with my unit, we found a man or what used to be a man, bashed in the head by a blunt weapon, coroner says its a hammer, the man has been dead for 30 minutes, his laptop gone, but his wallet and phone still intact, and most of the blood smeared indicating an attempt by the assailants to clear the evidence, the murder was done impulsively but the clean up methodical". "Do you have any theories as to why he was killed and only his laptop taken?" Sherlock asked, "He worked for an organisation called Anti Cult Activist Network, he specialised on one cult Visualize headed by Mr. Brett Stiles. Its a multinational cult." "So you think they had him killed because he was about to reveal a story about them?" "Yes we do". "The organisation itself I have heard about" said Holmes, "They reveal the inner workings of cults and try to free members, do you think this man had anyone in Visualize who he might have wanted to free?" "We don't know that, Sir" The Agent responded. "Well you may also expect that anyone he had may have killed him, as the killing wasn't done by a henchman, the person may have been feeding him information, then they were caught, threatened and asked to do the killing as a lesson to them, the henchmen hired to enforce the punishment would then have done the clean up and called it in." Holmes stated, "That hasn't occurred to us as a theory" the Agent answered, "Well then Agent Lisbon, let me get dressed and we can leave within the hour." "I hope you do not oppose to accompanying me on this Watson?" He asked turning to me, "Of course not, if I can be of help" I answered, "Then get dressed and we can all leave within the hour". Soon we were on our way to the scene of the crime, and within one hour we had arrived. It was a small yet spacious office, full to the brim with officers going and coming, once again I made the acquaintance of the other Agents that worked under the CBI serious crimes unit. Sherlock Holmes immediately got to work, walking up and down the premises, taking measurements and mumbling the results to himself, he walked up to the body, whipped out his lens and looked around the body, the desk and even at the head wound, everyone stared at him with astonishment at his energy and enthusiasm. I just busied myself talking to the Agents, soon he got up and walked to Agent Lisbon, "One of the officers here is the accomplice, can you account for every officer?" He asked, "No, I think two of them have already gone, Officer Dale and Officer Charleston", "Find them then, and trace their connections to Visualize" Holmes said, "But how did you come to that conclusion?" Agent Lisbon asked, "The call did not come from an officer grant that?, Yes, then it came from either a witness or the killer, most likely the killer since we haven't had any witnesses come forward, the killer is inexperienced which made the murder impulsive, with my theory of henchmen enforcers, the cleaning would have been better carried out with the unlimited time the killer had, but it wasn't, the killer instead picked a few things, called it in and ran off, someone on the force and among the first responders heard it and arrived on the scene, on seeing it was connected to Visualize, cleaned it as much as they could before the whole force got poured in, and given opportunity, has gone to dispose of it." Agent Lisbon spun on her heels and began barking orders to officers regarding the finding of the other officers. "Well Watson, this case has some small points in connection to it that is quite singular, but there is nothing more we can learn here, we could have a quick breakfast and head out to visit this Visualize", "You have a theory then?" I asked, "Not yet Watson, its always a fail to theorise before one has sufficient data, I almost ran into a capital error just now for that same reason. But the case begins to take form in my mind, but first why would this informant kill this man?" "Do you know who he is then?" I asked, "She, Watson, I do not, except that she is a woman of strong resolve, is untrained in combat, a member of well versed member of Visualize, in financial trouble of some sought and middle aged, that's why we must take a trip to Visualize", "How did you come to that conclusion?" "The dent on the head, if you observe the blow with my lens, you could establish the depth, its not as deep as should be if a young man or trained woman carried it out, definitely the blow came from a weak hand with just enough strength to kill him through blood loss and not the actual blow itself, so either a middle aged woman or an old man, nine in ten cases, a not so rich man as our victim would rather go for a woman he can charm than a man, as men have very taut loyalty to the course of their cults, especially aged ones, so its not far fetched to say a woman."

"she carries out her plan to kill him without any provocation, a strong willed woman, and well versed in Visualize history, else he wouldn't ask her for sensitive enough information to get him killed, she must be in financial crisis or in love for her to accept to give him information, most likely financial, love would have seen the mission to completion first." "Anything else you aren't clear on Watson?" "No, its clear as day", "Then we better get back to work." That said we walked back to the road and took a cab back to our apartment. It was by 7 pm that I was rudely awoken from my sleep by the voice of Sherlock Holmes beckoning on me to get up, "How long have I been asleep?" I asked, "almost four hours my dear Watson, I didn't think it necessary to wake you, I have visited Visualize","My dear fellow, surely there is some adventure upon which I can be of help?" I asked sounding rather desperate, "Not that today can bring, turns out Watson that Visualize isn't a cult as per the term, but rather a kind of Church, with lots of untrained middle aged women."

"Mr. Stiles was gracious enough to ask my help in his power play" said Holmes, "He is at the CBI now on charges of murder", "You got him then?" I asked expectant, "No Watson!" Holmes exclaimed impatiently, "our killer is a woman, Mr. Stiles wants to know who would most likely plot a coup against him in the future" He help up a piece of paper he had picked up from the door and read, then handing over to me he said, "RedJohn has been kind enough to grace us with a letter, by Jove Watson! you're lucky he had no idea you were sleeping indoors" he said laughing, but I didn't find it funny, the letter contained in the gentlest terms a cease and desist warning, it read:

 _"Mr. Holmes,_

 _My people have informed me about your growing interest in my murders, You're not the only one with the capability of acquiring knowledge about a rival, I am to crime what you're to detection. I'll encourage that you step back Mr. Holmes, I'll hate to step out of habit to put you in line._

 _Yours Faithfully_

 _RJ "_


End file.
